Recovered VMs - Can't read disk

[amueller]

Hello,

I have several VMs that were recovered from VMFS and put onto a Windows USB Drive (NTFS).  I moved the files off of the USB drive back onto the ESXi server.  I started the VM using Workstation, but get the message:  "Unable to enumerate all disks"  (there is just 1 disk, but there are vswp files)

I then attempted to mount the drive in Windows, but I get:  "Error reading volume information.  Please select another disk file". This happens whether I read the base vmdk or the flat.vmdk.

After this I created a new VM (Local, not ESXi) and tried to map the flat.vmdk to the new VM.  When I click finish on the Add Hardware Wizard I get:  "The file specified is not a virtual disk"

I'm not real sure where to go at this point.  The files look like this:

I'm not sure what else I can do at this point to get my data back.  There are other VM's on this recovered disk that are similar in that I cannot access them.  I'm sure there must be a way that I am completely missing  

[amueller]

I purchased a VMDK Recovery software called Aryson.  It has no problem reading the disk.  Not sure why VMWare is having a problem.  Now I'm trying to figure out how to take that data and then copy it over to a new vmdk so that I can boot up.  Not sure how easy that is going to be...

[a_p_]

Which files have been restored? Note that each virtual disk on an ESXi host consists of two .vmdk files (more if there are snapshots), a small header/descriptor file, and the data file. Both of them are required, and it's always the descriptor file that's used in the VM's settings.

Please post a complete file listing (the output of dir *.*), and attach the small descriptor .vmdk files to your next reply.

André

[amueller]

Sorry - I had copy/pasted this in the first post, but it apparently didn't show up after posting:

I also attatched the vmdk file (descriptor)

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

The descriptor file's first line is incomplete, and should read

# Disk DescriptorFile

The file also has some binary zeroes an the end.

Please see whether fixing the descriptor file already solves the issue.

André

[amueller]

Wow - thank you so much!  That is all it took. And I was going through so much trying to fix this when the problem was that simple.